9. Lost and Found, by Andrew Clements
Easy read! Couldn’t sleep so read this from about 2 to 2:30 a.m. last night/this morning. It caught my eye in the library when I was looking for books for the kid I tutor — “The Landry News” was one of my favorites in elementary school! Come to think of it, it was a huge factor in my obsession with having a school newspaper in middle school (we had one absolutely fabulous issue in seventh grade! Comic Sans type and everything!) (But really it was amazing I still have it saved somewhere, three sheets legal paper sized, stapled in the corner, and a masthead!) — which then led me to apply to journalism in high school.
And I thank the literary gods for that.
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EDIT: Looked up “The Landry News” on Wikipedia to check a plot point and turns out one of the stories written by a character in TLN is titled “Lost and Found” and is also about discovering yourself, although in a less literal way than LAF’s! Also to get a bit review-y on LAF: A bit more cutesy and… more cheesy?… than Clements’ other books, but still fun :)
